Opportunities to Pass RBC Rule Delay Are Narrowing

The opportunities for credit unions to convince lawmakers to tuck a two-year delay of the NCUA’s Risk-Based Capital rule appear to have narrowed in recent days.

House Republicans included the two-year delay in three bills the chamber recently passed. However, the Senate did not include the plan in its version of two of the three bills and have not yet considered the third.

The remaining vehicle is House-passed legislation that would make it easier for businesses to raise capital. The bill was cosponsored by House Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) and the panel’s ranking Democrat, Maxine Waters of California. The bill encompasses several bipartisan bills the committee had approved, as well as the RBC delay.

“The [bill] may be the Last Train to Clarksville for Congress to pass RBC delay,”  said John McKechnie, senior partner at Total Spectrum.

On June 27, the House passed legislation to update the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States; the bill, considered to be a high-priority piece of legislation contained the RBC rule delay.

However, House and Senate conferees on the annual defense authorization bill agreed to wrap the foreign investment legislation into the defense bill, leaving the RBC delay out of the measure.

The House also passed FY19 Financial Services appropriations legislation containing the RBC delay. The Senate this week began considering its version of the Financial Services funding measure; it is wrapped into other annual funding bills.

Senate appropriators have agreed not to include any policy riders in the annual funding measure.

However, NAFCU officials this week sent a letter to Senate leaders urging them to include the RBC rule delay in the funding bill.

But if the past is any indication, Congress is unlikely to consider individual funding bills and instead, will wrap spending decisions into one or more omnibus bills.

That leaves the Hensarling-Waters bill.

Hensarling has said that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) agreed to consider that bill in exchange for the House vote on the Senate regulatory overhaul bill, which has become law.

“Leader McConnell said he intends to give the JOBS Act a chance on the floor, so that’s encouraging,” McKechnie said. “It’s also encouraging that senior Senate Democratic Banking Committee staff acknowledge that the 400 plus votes it received in the House makes the legislation worth a second look.”

Ryan Donovan, CUNA’s chief advocacy officer, said he is optimistic that the Senate will consider that bill.